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Mustafa Murat Kaynak / Anadolu Agency
CRYPTO MARKETS
Bitcoin enjoyed a modest breakout Monday, gaining close to 5%, though it soon retreated back near where it began the week. After rising more than 150% in a two-month period from mid-March to May, bitcoin has sputtered since its halving and it’s volatility by the end of June was its lowest since February. A report this week showed that bitcoin trading volumes sank by 36% in June, a decline reminiscent of the lead-up to the “crypto winter” in early 2019.
One small cryptocurrency did double in value this week with a push from young TikTok users. Dogecoin, which trades for less than half a penny, soared after a viral video with a million views encouraged users to invest.
ELECTION 2020
Brock Pierce, a controversial cryptocurrency investor who cofounded the stablecoin tether, is running for president. While his vanity third-party run isn’t getting as much hype as that of rapper Kanye West, Pierce promises that he would have used “21st century technology” to get stimulus checks and unemployment to Americans much faster. In a wide-ranging interview, Pierce revealed more details on his policy positions and denied disturbing allegations that he provided drugs to minors and pressured them to have sex in 2000.
The first week of his campaign didn’t go so well. A New York appeals court approved an investigation into a number of businesses behind tether, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar and has a market value of $10 billion. Questions about whether or not tether is actually backed dollar-for-dollar have circulated since 2018. The Bitfinex exchange is also a separate respondent in the New York attorney general’s investigation.
FORMER REGULATOR JOINS CHAINALYSIS
Sigal Mandelker, a Donald Trump appointee for under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence who stepped down last year to work in the private sector, has reemerged as an investor and board member for Chainalysis. Her venture firm, Ribbit Capital, joined the crypto investigation startup’s expanded $49 million Series B funding round, and she expects to put her government experience tracing illicit activities to good use.
LIGHTNING STRIKES
Bitcoin’s lightning network was built to speed up low-value bitcoin transactions by moving them off the bitcoin blockchain, but researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem warned that the network is vulnerable against cyberattacks if users aren’t careful. Computer scientists Jona Harris and Aviv Zohar wrote in a Medium post that since the network is susceptible to “blockchain congestion,” around $9 million worth of bitcoin could be “looted” by attackers.
PONZI SCHEME REVIVED?
The PlusToken Ponzi scheme masterminds disappeared in 2019 with a $3 billion profit after six people allegedly involved in the scheme were arrested, but after a long quiet period, the XRP holdings of PlusToken wallets are moving again, signaling that some Ponzi schemers may still be at large.
About 285 million XRP tokens were transferred to a pool of accounts on June 19 shuffling the money and making it difficult to trace, though the scammers don’t necessarily control this shuffle-pool and it may be law enforcement simply selling seized assets.
ENTERPRISE
Digital asset investment manager Arca launched the Arca U.S. Treasury Fund on Wednesday, making it the first SEC-registered product regulated under the Investment Company Act of 1940 to offer digital securities. The fund will use the Ethereum blockchain to offer shares of ArCoins, which will pay out quarterly interest to investors, and ArCoins’ value is expected to remain stable since the fund will invest primarily in low-risk Treasury securities.
ELSEWHERE
The Federal Reserve’s Declining Balance Sheet Is Bearish for Bitcoin. Or Is It? [CoinDesk]
Crypto Stablecoins Face Increasing Regulatory Scrutiny [Bloomberg]
Could We Fight Misinformation With Blockchain Technology? [New York Times]